Refugee
Refugee
"I wrote this song after my fifth trip to Northern Iraqi Kurdistan. The things I witnessed, the people I met, and the stories I heard had fleshed out the absurdity of the incarnation in a way that scared me, broke my Western worldview, and filled me with gratitude and awe at the humility of Jesus who didn't consider equality with God as something to hold on to, but humbled himself, and became less than nothing... A God who was born a refugee." (David Brymer)
REFUGEE
Written by David Brymer (ASCAP), Latifah Alattas (SESAC)
© 2018 Common Hymnal Publishing (ASCAP), Innerland (ASCAP), Common Hymnal Online (SESAC), Moda Spira Publishing (SESAC) (admin by IntegratedRights.com). CCLI 7119234.
VERSE 1
Bb Dm Gm
My Savior was born a refugee
Eb F Bb
Was hunted in his own country
Bb Dm
From heaven, an unplanned pregnancy
Eb F Bb
Adopted by his own family
VERSE 2
My Savior, he did not save himself
He suffered and brought the sick to health
His kingdom, for those in poverty
To know him, for those with eyes to see
CHORUS
Bb Dm Gm
God is not untouchable
Eb F Bb F
Jesus bared his heart and soul
Eb F Gm
Our eyes have seen the invisible
Eb F Bb
Now God is one of us
VERSE 3
My Savior, he died a lonely death
Forsaken at his final breath
No one to sing at his funeral
Did this life mean anything at all?
BRIDGE
Bb Gm
Who could have thought? Who could imagine?
Eb Bb F
This kind of love, God has blood
Bb Gm
Pouring out on a cross we made
Eb Cm Eb
God has a face, God has a name
Bb Gm
Who could have thought? Who could imagine?
Eb Bb F
This kind of love, God has blood
Bb Gm
Pouring out on a cross we made
Eb Cm Bb/D
God has a face, God has a name
Eb Cm Bb/D
God has a face, God has a name
TAG
Eb Bb/D F/C Gm Eb Bb/D F
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, God with us
Eb Bb/D F/C Gm Eb Bb/D F
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, God with us
It was my fifth trip to Northern Iraqi Kurdistan. I had found myself yet again in this strange country with a strange language, strange at least for a born-and-bred American boy who could count on one hand his trips outside the States. How I got there was as curious to me as anyone else who asked.. what was it about this war-torn country that was so compelling?
From the start, it was a love story. In 2014 a friend of mine reached out one September afternoon by text, a kind-of cryptic text: Northern Iraq, 100 hours of prayer, ISIS, no guarantees, free plane ticket, let me know.
One thing led to another, and I woke up in the Middle East in my mid-thirties realizing this was a different life trajectory than I could have guessed in my twenties. As I began to realize what was happening during that first and fateful whirlwind trip, that my heart was opening up to a place, a people, a purpose.. and as I began to listen to stories of tragedy and loss that i could not comprehend, I saw faces weathered by the sun, creased by sorrow and sadness, sharing what little they had with me, a foreigner, even as they were strangers in their own land, a people who no longer had a home.
And as if a dam broke within me I saw the beauty of the incarnation, the salvation story that was nice and pretty in the West, but in reality was dirty, painful and completely absurd. God, born to parents who would spend their first 8 married years as refugees, raising a refugee son, a son that was but wasn't their own, the Son of God. And from this panorama of the Gospel before me, the song Refugee was born.